>I wasn't aware that it was the supercombatant slayer spell of choice.
It was one of them. It was awkward to use, but it was possible to mass enough to drop super combatants sometimes. There is no ward or immunity to Star Fire. Most super combatants are stacked with immunity. Many super combatants have incredible protection values, and Star Fire was armor negating. It gave many nations the ability to deal when they had no other options.
In Dom I if an enemy showed up with a pumped up Ice Devil, you could respond with a stack of witch hunters, lizard shamen, crystal sorceresses, or anything with a shard of astral magic. Massing the needed mages wasn't easy, and star fire tended to be painfully inaccurate, but it was a response that could work. Loading up a bunch of mages in Dom II is harder due to a weaker gold economy. Less mages and weaker star fire is going to make life more difficult for players.
>and would you like another like it on higher research?
Absolutely.
>Hmm, in what ways supercombatant oriented?
I'll get you a detailed list of reasons later, but for now:
*Low value to nation scales inspires pretenders with more magic.
*Gold economy weaker than Dom I. Harder to afford mages, and mages are one of the things that handled super combatants.
*Gold economy weaker than Dom I. Harder to afford troops. Super Combatants trump conventional armies. Less conventional force plus magical pretenders equals players using super combatants.
*Star fire no longer as potenet a defense versus super combatants.
*Many super combatants are high end blood summons. These are now 'demons' and not 'undead'. Nations with death magic can no longer use dust to dust, wither bones, control the dead, or any anti-undead magic to deal with these bad boys. This makes them dramatically more potent.
*Not sure about solar rays (and herald lance) but it may suffer from the same ineffectiveness versus 'demons'. Used to be that a few commanders with herald lances and totem shields could offer an army some defense versus the big undead.
*Elemental summons have been rendered impotent (double fatigue plus gem cost!). A basic defense versus super combatants was swarming them with elementals. Not any more.
*there are a few more reasons but I can't think of them off the top of my head. I'll make a list.
Thus defense versus super combatants is at an all time low, while game mechanics inspire players to use magically endowed pretenders.
My fear is that multiplayer is going to turn into "Super Combatant battle arena".